Tunable pore size and outer particle diameter of spherical mesoporous silica particles in the nanometer range were successfully synthesized using a novel water/oil-phase synthesis technique. This method involves (i) simultaneous hydrolytic condensation of tetraorthosilicate to form silica and polymerization of styrene into polystyrene (PS), (ii) self-assembly nanocluster silica and nanocluster PS to form silica/PSL nanoparticle, and (iii) calcination process to remove organic components and to produce mesoporous silica particle. In this study, an amino acid (e.g. lysine) was utilized to catalyze and to maintain the silica formation due to its ability in covering prepared silica after reaction. Further, another advantage of this catalyst is more harmless than other catalysts (e.g. ammonia, N2H4). The result showed spherical particles with controllable pore size (from 4 to 15 nm) and outer diameter (from 20 to 80 nm) was produced. The ability to control pore size and outer diameter was drastically altered by adjusting the concentration of styrene and hydrophobic molecules, respectively. After the preparation of particle was understood clearly, the large-molecule-adsorption performance of the prepared porous particles was conducted. As expected, relatively large organic molecules (i.e. Rhodamine B) were well-absorbed in the prepared sample but not by the commercial non-porous particles. With this reason, the prepared mesoporous silica particles may be used efficiently in various applications, including electronic devices, sensors, pharmaceuticals, and environmentally sensitive pursuits, due to its harmless process, compatibility for bio-application, and excellent adsorption properties.

We report on the experimental investigation of the use of Sixtron Advanced Materials Silane-free gas generation system to deposit a transparent SiCxOy Na-diffusion barrier and anti-reflection film (for subsequent TCO thin film coatings) onto glass sheets with an APCVD deposition process. SiCxOy thin films (50-250nm thickness) with a tunable index of 1.65-1.75 are currently being deposited by APCVD On-line float glass coating systems depositing Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) coatings (both for Low-E windows and for solar panel manufacturing applications these coatings typically have a refractive index of about 1.9) using, for example, gaseous Silane (SiH4), Propylene or Ethylene and Oxygen. Such a barrier film is critical for achieving high transparency through its anti-reflection properties having an intermediate index, i.e. close to the value of to achieve high conductivity for subsequent deposited TCO layers and to improve the longevity of the TCO coating performance through its Na-diffusion barrier properties. The Sixtron's Silane-free gas generation system uses a solid material as starting source that is safe for shipping by airand thus removes many of the safety and cost concerns involved with handling and exchanging of hazardous Silane gas cylinders at the thin film production site. A successful transfer of this alternative Si-precursor material to the proprietary CVDgCoat™ APCVD coating platform under development by CVD Equipment corporation would enable the manufacturing and operation of safer and lower cost On-line and Off-line APCVD thin film glass coating systems for the fast growing coated glass sheet market driven by the growing alternative energy demand for both energy saving and energy generation materials.

When clutch boards are fabricated as friction sheets in automatic transmission of motorcars, their useless fragments are disposed of. In this study, an effective reuse of their waste clutch boards will be proposed. Clutch boards are composed of diatomaceous earth, carbon powder/fiber and phenol resin. Excess carbon in carbonized clutch boards was reacted with SiO formed from Si and SiO2 at 1500 °C in Ar to produce porous SiC sheets (79% porosity). High temperature treatment at 1700-1900 °C in vacuum made it possible to control the pore size of SiC sheets, having a main pore diameter range of 10 to 20 μm.

SiC sheets with porosity (79% to <60%) were also fabricated by heating carbonized/impregnated sheets with phenol resin in SiO gas at 1500 °C. SiC sheets obtained by the repeated cycle of impregnation/decomposition of resin heating at 1700 °C gave a tensile strength of 19 MPa.

When Aluminum-tri-sec-butoxide (ASB) solution was impregnated into SiC sheets oxidized at 1000-1200 °C in air and heated at 1400-1500 °C in Ar, SiC-mullite composite sheets with porosity (77%) were produced.

The wet chemical synthesis of energy and sensor relevant nanomaterials often requires large amounts of high boiling point solvents, grams of reactants, solvent-based purification, and the use of oxygen free atmospheres. These synthetic routes are also prone to poor scalability due to requirements of precise control of high temperatures. Because of this, the potential use of metallic nanoparticles and semiconductive quantum dots (q-dots) in energy transfer and real time biosensor applications is labor intensive and expensive. We have explored a green alternative route that involves the colloidal synthesis of CdSe and CdTe quantum dots under well-controlled hydrothermal conditions (100-200°C) using simple inorganic precursors. The resulting nanomaterials are of high quality, and are easily processed depending upon application, and their synthesis is scalable. Temperature control, and synthetic scalability is provided by the use of a synthetic microwave reactor, which employs computer-controlled dielectric heating for the rapid and controllable heating.

Ultrasonic spray-assisted mist deposition techniques have been developed as a cost-effective and environmental friendly deposition method for oxide and organic thin films. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of a variety of oxide thin films having unique functions, such as Cr2O3, Cu2O, Fe3O4, and Al2O3 thin films, has been demonstrated as well as high-quality ZnO and Ga2O3 films ever reported. In addition to the films deposition by the CVD process, the deposition of organic material thin films from the source solution has also been achieved; as examples we have shown the patterned deposition of water-soluble fluorescent polymers with a metal mask. This may substitute the spin-coating technique and contribute to increase the source consumption efficiency in the thin film deposition. We appeal that the mist deposition is a unique and promising technique as a green chemical route for film deposition.

In this work, we demonstrate the synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles in aqueous solution with MS2 bacteriophages as a biotemplate. Bionanofabrication methods offer unique opportunities for nanomaterials synthesis, where choice of biotemplate can influence the size, shape and function of the produced material. Synthesis reactions are carried out under mild aqueous conditions, and thus hazardous organic solvents, high temperature, and extreme pH can be avoided. The MS2 bacteriophage is a potential template system for bionanofabrication of nanoscale materials due to its size and inherent physical/chemical properties. MS2 capsid proteins can be genetically modified to incorporate functional groups and sequences. Also, genomic RNA in MS2 can be degraded or replaced with other oligonucleotide sequences and still form intact capsids. In this work, we use MS2 for bio-assisted synthesis of CdS nanoparticles and adjust the amount of RNA present in the template to assess biotemplate-nanomaterial property relationships. Produced nanoparticles were probed with several techniques including UV-Vis, photoluminescence and Hi-Res TEM. Optical techniques revealed that CdS nanoparticles with predicated fluorescent properties form in the presence of MS2 and remain stable in aqueous solutions. In fact, MS2-templated CdS nanoparticles were stable at room temperature for several weeks. Presence of RNA in the capsid interior was found to have major impact on the biotemplating process. Hi-Res TEM micrographs verified the presence of nanocrystals and their association with the biotemplate. Bionanofabrication using viral templates holds promise to enable an efficient, controlled and environmentally sustainable synthesis approach for a range of important nanomaterials. The work presented here represents an additional step forward towards those goals.

Superparamagnetic nanoparticles can find many applications in different fields with greener techniques. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles less than 10nm coated with humic acid were synthesized by a chemical co-precipitation technique with cheap and environmental friendly iron salts and humic acid. The as-synthesized products were highly soluble in water. The efficacy for liver Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent was investigated by using it to the live rat and tumor-bearing rabbit models, on a conventional clinical 1.5 T MRI facility. Moreover the Fe3O4 –HA composite used in the Methylene Blue adsorption in neutral aqueous solution was studied too with high efficiency. The experimental results showed that the humic acid coated Fe3O4 superparamagnetic nanoparticles were suitalbe not only for liver MRI contrast agent, but also as adsorbents for removal of cationic organic dyes from neutral water.

Recently, semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots (QDs) aroused great concern because of their unique properties such as the size-dependent photoluminescence. They have many excellent applications in areas of molecular bioimaging, medical detection and even energy, especially as biosensing and imaging instead of fluorescent dyes. For the bio-safety, however, we should assess the cytotoxicity of QDs before used in biomedical imaging. Here, the cytotoxicity of amino-functionalized CdSe/CdS (CdSe/CdS-NH2) QDs and carboxy-functionalized CdSe/CdS (CdSe/CdS-COOH) QDs was investigated by MTT assay method. According to our findings, both CdSe/CdS-NH2 and CdSe/CdS-COOH have a dose-dependent effect on cell proliferation. The cytotoxicity of QDs varies with storing time of QDs and kinds of cells. The cytotoxicity of QDs modified with -COOH or -NH2 groups both vary with concentrations in positive linear or change with QD storing time in negative linear. The results indicate that CdSe/CdS-COOH QDs have lower toxicity than CdSe/CdS-NH2 QDs. Hela cell is somewhat more sensitive to amino- and carboxy-modified QDs than Bel7404 cell for MTT assays.

This paper presents results for infrared transparent and conducting thin films based on In2O3. The films have been prepared by magnetrons sputtering equipment with different condition. Typical transmittance of 70%-80% with a film sheet resistance of 80-300Ω/□ in the 3.5-5.0μrn region has been achieved.

Optically transparent and electrically conductive semiconductor Oxide films have been extensively studied in recent years. Such films have been prepared by various methods. In general, these films have high visible transmittance, but are opaque in the IR wavelength range of 1-12μm IR transmission. The infrared transparent and electrically conductive thin films are useful in certain important applications. For example, these films can be use as antistatic coatings, and while permitting a reasonable transmission coefficient for IR. Another obvious application is to serve as the conducting electrode for various optical devices where good infrared transmission is important. So, it is important to research indium oxide base infrared (3-5 um) transparent conduction thin films.

It has been developed that preparation condition influence on properties of thin films. Such as the sputtering time, and pressure, and power, and the substrate temperature, had great influence on the crystal structure, optical and electrical properties of In2O3-based thin films.

The In2O3-based thin films obtained were characterized and analyzed by X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Vander Pauw Method and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).

The possibility of using three dimensional porous networks as microreactors for synthesizing thermoresponsive polymers and hydrogels in a CO2 environment is an important breakthrough in the strategies to prepare smart films, membranes and porous bulky devices that undergo fast reversible changes in surface properties triggered by external stimuli. In situ synthesis of thermoresponsive polymers namely, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and poly (N,N-diethylacrylamide) (PDEAAm) within chitosan (CHT), collagen (CLG) and chitosan-collagen (CHT:CLG) blended scaffolds were performed in order to further impregnate with model drugs. The performance of these switchable release devices was evaluated through the study of drug release kinetics as a function of temperature and pH. The same methodology was successfully applied to produce thermoresponsive polysulfone-based membranes.